Braun & Hogenberg's Civitates orbis terrarum (Cologne, 1572-1617) is the main source for the present work. Limited use was made of 4 additional works: De' disegni delle piu illustri citta & fortezze del mondo / Giulio Ballino (Venice, 1569); La cosmographie universelle de tout le monde / Francois de Belle-Forest; Theatrum urbium italicarum / Petrus Bertellius (Venice, 1599); Cosmographiae universalis libri V / Sebastian Mu?nster (Basel, 1572). See Seifert, p. [23]

Of views that are signed, most are by Francesco Valesio. Five are by Martin Rota (Algiers, Constantinople, Lepanto, Rhodes, Venice). The views of Algiers, Constantinople and Rhodes are dated 1572. Seifert reports that the signature is lacking in many impressions of the view of Constantinople

The views are printed two at a time, side by side on a sheet, which is then folded with another to make a gathering of 4. Thus the first 2 views of a gathering appear on the versos of their leaves and the last 2 on the rectos

Seifert, T. Raccolta di le piu illustri et famose citta di tutto il mondo

Library's copy lacks the etched title leaf. French title hand written on initial leaf, which is followed by 2 blank leaves. Title, place and date from Seifert. The prints comprising Library's copy are apparently from the 1st ed.; the town "Mola", numbered 62 in Library's copy, has not been corrected to "Nola", as it was in the 2nd ed. Seifert estimates that the original ed. comprised around 250 views. All of the 60 with text in a compartment below the view that extends across the print's entire width are lacking in Library's copy, as they are in other early copies

Most of the cities depicted in Library's copy are in Europe, with some in the Middle East, but Calicut, Mexico City and Cuzco are also included

Binding: old limp vellum, tooled in gilt. Each cover has two concentric frames of double fillets, joined at the corners by monograms composed of D and A, with D'AGVST in a leafy medallion at center. Five fleurons on spine in compartments formed by double fillets. The edges gilt

Signature in brown ink at upper left corner of front pastedown: Bonnatte?. Alphabetical index of the cities represented written on both sides of front free endpaper, giving location in accordance with foliation written at upper right corner of recto of each leaf after the title. The foliation runs: 1, 4 ... 140, the two missing numbers implying that the vol.'s present configuration may not be its first. The title on leaf [1] recto is written inside a woodcut frame containing two putti, with borders printed from separate blocks at top and sides containing fruit and flowers. The title is followed by the shelfmark "Kii" and a monogram (D'AGVST?), between which is a later signature: Am. Taubel / 1875. Above each putto's head is a signature: D'Aguts (rather than D'Agust), a form close to Agut, the name of the family given in Rietstap for the arms that are stamped in black ink on verso of last view

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